What's the script with schools looking like maximum security prisons?

[Pyew]

Is there some well-connected fence contractor who's hobbled Ofsted into telling schools they must spend money on Alcatraz makeovers while they can't afford pens or textbooks? It's all a bit OTT isn't it?

Not when you've got knife waving lunies who target schools

There's not many of them though is there. Really for most kids not having pens/books/playing fields/musical instruments has a bigger impact on them. On days when there are no knife wielding loonies ie every day bar one in a million, the fences make the environment less safe and more stressful as they limit and corral children's access and exits.

Insurance. Insurance requires adequate fencing and attempt to take reasonable steps to prevent theft or arson (arson in school holidays is a big problem for school buildings).

also safeguarding- they have to be able to control who is on site during the school day. It’s supposed to be hard to get into the area children are once they are in for the day in order to keep them safe. This is why you have to buzz to get in, can’t get past reception during the school day without someone releasing a door lock etc.

Sorry just looked it up, remembered there was a lot of arson attacks on schools - 1,400-1,800 in the UK each year. Mostly when the school is closed. Insurance will only pay out if adequate and reasonable attempts have been made to secure the building when empty for extended periods.

Students absconding from schools stopped when fences went up. Greggs sales went down too, when they could no longer go off school campus at lunchtime.

Are you talking about primary or secondary schools? Our local primaries look much the same as they did forty years ago when I was a child…

They do have high chain-link fences, but then so did we because otherwise you risked footballs ending up on a main road. And you don’t want kids escaping/absconding, or being swiped (more likely to be by estranged family members than strangers).

Knife-wielding maniacs might be rare, but sadly violent parents aren’t.

I've always presumed in the local village it was to keep the lions safe from the teenagers (the school is next to the zoo... although not next to the lions!)

My son’s independent school has no fences. They can go in and out of the buildings (using keypads) whenever they like.
He was at a state primary that was fenced in like Alcatraz. He says that’s one of the things he prefers about the new school (Y7), and they ‘treat us like people here’. Says a lot really.

Because the school premises regs mandate that the perimeter has to be secure, and the least complicated way of ensuring that is with fencing and controlled access points.

I don’t recognise this from our secondary schools in Scotland. It wouldn’t be such a bad thing though! At my school, a teacher was recently attacked by some boys who snuck in from a different school.

Believe me, there are no schools paying for fencing instead of pencils, for one thing fencing could come from DFC which is a different funding stream.
Imagine the outcry if something happened in a school without adequate precautions...

But on that one day where there is, it will be of no consolation that OK, they died horribly - but at least they always had a glue stick and violin lessons on a Tuesday morning.

the fences make the environment less safe and more stressful as they limit and corral children's access and exits.

What do you mean? Students aren't supposed to be able to just walk out of school whenever they fancy. That's part of the reason for the fences. The gates are opened at times when they need to arrive and leave, and they can be let out to go off site at other times, e.g. for a medical appointment.

Well if parents parented and stop blaming the school for everything there would be less need

Schools contain lots of unsupervised and irregularly monitored computers, bags in changing rooms with phones and wallets, sports gear and AV equipment. Is it a good idea to let unregistered randoms wander around?

Kids do drugs and attract dealers. Would you like them wandering in and out all day?

You seem either disingenuous or naive. Not to mention ill informed about the costs of maintained sports fields and musical instruments for 1000 students versus a fence.

Schools need to be locked down, because some children have parents (dads) who will abduct them. There are hundreds of safeguarding situations which mandate that schools are locked down.

DfE rules and Ofsted. I’m a secondary Governor & a ridiculous amount of money had to be spent on a fence to pass Ofsted. Arson etc has zero to do with it as the gates are open after school hours. Meanwhile independent schools are not required to fence because no Ofsted. As for the poster above who said fence & pencils from separate pots, not true.

IIRC 'my school feels safe' is a big priority for children. They want to know that this is a secure space where no weird neighbours or scary people wandering around.

Our local school has a huge playing field. We used to play on it as kids after school but now of course it's empty once 3 pm comes round because of the giant fence.

There are no parks within a safe walking distance for a child in that area so there's now nowhere to play and meet friends .

My school which was originally built as open access and has scout huts and similar on the site put fences up in 2021. I assume it was an ofsted thing.

it was a pain to be honest because they cut the entrances down to two only one of which was wheelchair accessible and I had to cross most of the site to get out and then go round to almost back where I was to get my car.

It’s to safeguard children - schools where I live began to look like fortresses after Dunblane if I remember rightly. I for one am pleased my DC are safe from intruders at school.

@Tronkmanton thanks, that's as I understood it to be. When did Ofsted start making it a requirement? The mega-fences and sign-in screens round here all look the same which makes me think it's the same contractor. They must be coining it in.

You had chain link fences and electronic sign on screens in 1996? Ok.

YABU You can never take too many precautions when you have 100’s of children’s lives in your hands.

A previous poster raised a good point about the gates being open for all the non school clubs and activities. We go to many secondary schools for a sport and security is really variable.

I prefer the good old days where there was a footpath and dog walkers through my old school. Also the playgrounds sitting empty seems a waste when play space is so difficult to access. I mean football, basketball, netball etc. Sadly vandalism is the problem.